Marcus McDaniel, an Augusta Parks and Recreation Department employee, filed a sexual harassment claim against a coworker at Bernie Ward Community Center and found himself fired. After a lengthy hearing on Nov. 18, the Augusta Personnel Board upheld the termination.
McDaniel, who was a four-year employee of the Parks and Recreation department, will appeal the decision in Superior Court, according to his father Robert McDaniel.
According to McDaniel’s complaint, filed last February with the Augusta Compliance Department, Marcia Mitchell began showing interest in him by asking for hugs that made him uncomfortable. McDaniel says he told Mitchell that he was not comfortable with hugging her.
Mitchell then began inviting McDaniel to work out with her, invited him to have dinner, referred to him as “bubble butt,” and told him she was looking for a “sugar daddy.” McDaniel also alleged in his complaint that an uncomfortable exchange occurred between the two while he was stowing equipment in a janitor’s closet.
As part of the Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) complaint process, McDaniel had to sign a confidentiality agreement.
Augusta EEO coordinator Debra Poole told the Personnel Board that she did not interview any witnesses other than Mitchell, who alleged that she was the victim of harassment herself and had had to deal with a hostile work environment.
According to Poole, Mitchell admitted to playfully calling McDaniel “bubble butt,” but said that she was set up by the center’s director, Stanley Brown, who she said dared her to call McDaniel the sexually-suggestive nickname to see what his reaction would be.
Mitchell also admitted that she asked McDaniel to work out with her at the fitness facility at the Bernie Ward Center and did invite him out for a seafood dinner, but said that both invitations were strictly platonic.
Poole said her investigation took a turn when she learned that Brown had been suspended over another matter involving Mitchell’s hostile workforce complaint with the Human Resources Department. According to Poole, she found evidence through text messages sent to her by two other recreation employees that Brown and McDaniel were colluding to have Mitchell fired.
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According to Poole, the text messages claimed that McDaniel had violated his confidentiality agreement and that Brown had aided him in drawing up the sexual harassment complaint.
The text messages alleged that Brown had wanted a current employee to take over the vacant janitor position and instead the Human Resources Department hired Mitchell without his input. According to Poole, a separate investigation concluded Brown had locked Mitchell out of offices on the property and intentionally slowed her training.
Mitchell was eventually moved to another location, and Brown was fired.
McDaniel’s attorney, Kenneth Radley, told the board that McDaniel filed his sexual harassment complaint long before Brown was fired over the hostile work environment charges. Radley insisted there was no collusion between Brown and McDaniel to have Mitchell fired.
“She admitted she asked him out to dinner and she admitted she called him Bubble Butt! This has nothing to do with (Brown). It has to do with sexual harassment on the job,” Radley told the board.
Radley pointed out that Mitchell claimed that the alleged encounter in the janitorial closet could never have happened because she has never been in the janitorial closet.
“She’s a janitor, and she’s never been in the janitorial closet?” Radley said.
According to Radley, Poole didn’t fully investigate the alleged perpetrator but instead went after the supposed victim using hearsay and enforced what he sees as a double standard.
“So, it’s not okay for a man to call a woman ‘bubble butt,’ but it’s totally okay for a woman to call a man that?” Radley argued.
Neither McDaniel nor Mitchell could be reached for comment.
Scott Hudson is the Senior Reporter for The Augusta Press. Reach him at scott@theaugustapress.com
